Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise today to speak on amendment No. 1565 to the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, or USICA, the underlying bill. My amendment preserves the constitutional authority of Congress over international trade. It does so by ensuring the President cannot waive or modify congressionally approved trade agreements, including the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, or TRIPS--the TRIPS Agreement. And the reason is that the TRIPS Agreement, like the USICA, contains provisions that facilitate the leadership of the United States in scientific and technological innovation. China is challenging that leadership through predatory practices aimed at our highest value sectors, including our pharmaceutical sector. Plain and simple, China wants our intellectual property. Remarkably, the administration announced, without consulting Congress, that it would support a waiver of U.S. intellectual property rights under the TRIPS Agreement with respect to vaccines. Moreover, the U.S. Trade Representative declined to confirm that she would oppose letting this waiver extend to China. Colleagues, there are vaccines precisely because the innovative U.S. firms exist because of strong IP protections. The problem with access to vaccines is not intellectual property. The problem is the manufacturing capacity.…”